Abstract Review Process

Review Process Step-by-Step:

Step 1: Create Reviewer Role
Step 2: Add Permissions to Reviewer Role
Step 3: Adding Reviewers
Step 4: Define Reviewer Screen
Step 5: Assign Reviewers
Step 6: Reviewer Login
Step 7: Track Reviewers

Overview

The Abstract Review tool consists of a number of steps that allow users to:

Create a Reviewer role and set Reviewer permission
Add Reviewers as Users into the Conference Manager system
Define what Abstract Information Reviewers will see
Create a Reviewer instructions page
Assign Reviewers to Abstracts
Send review instructions and log in information to Reviewers
Allow Reviewers to Login and review Abstracts online
View Abstract reviews

Administrators can:

Create Abstract presentation and length consistency;
Assign reviewers;
Accept papers;
Communicate with authors and reviewers;
Organize sessions; and,
Publish Conference proceedings.

Reviewers can:

Have all of their assigned Abstracts online and accessible from anywhere
Add comments and a numerical score to papers
Respond to custom questions created by the administrator

Lead Reviewers can:

Generate Excel reports containing all reviewer data related to their assigned abstracts
View Reviewers' comments/scores; and,
Accept/Reject Abstracts.

Authors can:

Submit multiple papers online;
Edit their Abstracts and make changes to their online submission until the submission date passes, or the Conference Administrator removes access to the submitted abstracts;

Step 1—Create Reviewer Role

PLEASE NOTE: Many/most CID's already have a Reviewer role set up. Please check to see if the role already exists before creating a new one unnecessarily.

The first step of getting your Reviewers set up is to first create a Reviewer role and set Reviewer permissions. Setting the permissions for the Reviewer role determines what the Reviewer will be able to see and do in the Conference Manager system.

1. Log in with your administrator account and go to Tools -> Users -> Roles
2. Click on New Role.

3. The default Name: unused will display, Click the Rename button.

4. Type Reviewer in the New name for unused role field.

5. Click the Save button.

NOTE: The name for this role must be Reviewer and it must start with a capital letter "R."

To Delete a Role, select the role by clicking on it in the Manage Role screen and click the Delete button.

NOTE: A role cannot be deleted if there are users assigned to that role in the community

Step 2 - Add Permissions to the Reviewer Role

PLEASE NOTE: Many/most CID's already have reviewer roles created with appropriate permissions assigned. The following instructions are only for when this is not the case. Please check the role and its corresponding permissions before creating a new role or updating existing permissions.

The Abstract Review tool must now be added to the new role.

1. Click the Change Permissions button to set Reviewer permission.

2. The Permission List screen displays.
3. Select the checkbox beside Abstract Review (tid=61)

4. Click the Save Changes button

NOTE: You may only select one permission and it must be Abstract Review (TID=61).

Step 3—Add Reviewers

There are two ways to add Reviewers into the Conference Manager Abstract system. The first method uses the Manage Users tool and the second is a batch import which uses the Import Users tool. The first method should only be used if you have a small amount of Reviewers (10 and under) to add to the system or you have no Reviewer data. If you have more than 10 Reviewers to add to the system, get a list of their data on a spreadsheet and use the second method.

A) Add Reviewers—>Manage Users Tool

Log in with your Admin account and go to Tools -> Users -> Manage Users
Click on the Create Accounts hyperlink.
Select the number of Reviewers you wish to create from the drop-down number list.
Select Reviewer from the drop-down Role list.
The drop-down role list will display Roles that exist in your community list. NOTE: You must have created the Reviewer role prior to creating your Reviewers in Step 1 above (Public and Administrator are default Roles for all communities).
Select a language.
Select the Enter Manually option to generate Passwords. This option allows you to select passwords for your Reviewers that are easy to remember. The system will auto-generate random passwords that can be difficult to remember, though login details will be emailed to the users.
Select the Manual Entry radio button if you wish to enter each person's details separately.
Email must be entered manually as the email address becomes the User's Login.
To set up User Accounts more quickly, select Auto-assign for all fields (except email).
Then manually enter First Name, Last Name, Email and Password.
Select the Auto-assign radio button and enter details in the data fields if you wish to use the same entry for every user.
To advance to the next screen click the Continue button.
Enter the Reviewer information into the data fields. First Name, Last Name and Email are mandatory fields
If you selected the Enter Manually option to generate Passwords on the previous screen, complete the Password field.
The system will prompt you to enter a password if this option was chosen and you forget to enter a password.
Click the Submit button.
New User(s) Created Successfully message screen will appear.
Return to the Manage User screen or Create More Users by clicking on the Return to Manage Users button or the Create More Users button.

Below is a mock up example of the Manage Users—Create Multiple User Accounts screen.

B) Add Reviewers -> Import Users

Use this tool to import Reviewer information and data from an existing spreadsheet. Conference Manager provides an Excel spreadsheet data template to import your Reviewer information. If you choose to use the data import template, you must follow the format of the template exactly. Do not change the column titles or the order of the columns!

Login with your Admin account and go to Tools -> Users -> Import Users
Download the data import template by clicking the user import spreadsheet hyperlink.
Save the template to your hard drive.
Cut and paste information from an existing spreadsheet or manually enter data into the template columns.
The following three column fields are mandatory and must contain data: Email, First Name, Last Name
You do not need to provide data for the remaining columns. However, the system will automatically assign random Usernames and Passwords to Reviewers if left blank.
The system will match Reviewers to Abstracts based on keywords entered on the Abstract Set
Keywords entered in the data import template must be an exact match to the keywords entered on the Abstract Set Up—Keywords screen.
Use a semi-colon ( ; ) to separate multiple keywords in the data import template Keyword column.
Save your completed spreadsheet!
Import your completed spreadsheet.
Choose the Browse button to locate your completed spreadsheet on your hard drive.
Click the Import button to import your completed spreadsheet.

Below is a mock up example of the Import Reviewer screen.

Step 4—Define Reviewer Screen

This screen defines what the Reviewer screen will look like and the information your Reviewers will see.

Log in as an Admin and go to Tools -> Abstracts -> Edit Abstract Form
Click the Next button to navigate to Screen 9 of the Edit Abstract Form.
Abstracts can be assigned automatically to reviewers based on Keywords and/or Categories. Select Yes if you wist to do this.
Lead reviewers can be automatically assigned to abstracts as lead reviewers or as both reviewers and lead reviewers. Select the appropriate position.
Choose the Author and Abstract information Reviewers will see by selecting the corresponding radio buttons.
Select the No radio button beside Authors' names if you want the reviews to be blind (e.g., you don’t want Reviewers to know the names of the Authors.)
Enter additional information you wish Reviewers to see in the Additional Instructions field.
By default, the system asks Reviewers to Add Comments and Assign a score depending on the rating scale you setup in the Abstract Form Setup (1-100). For example: 1 = Poor and 5 = Excellent.
Use HTML code to format complex or lengthy text instructions in the Additional Instructions blue text box. View our quick reference page on Basic HTML Tags
It is possible to ask your Reviewers additional questions using Custom Questions

Mock up example of the Reviewer screen as a Reviewer would see it:

Step 5—Assign Reviewers

Log in as Admin and to to Tools -> Abstracts -> Abstract Admin
Click the Reviewer List hyperlink.
Your list of Reviewers will display. You can filter the list if you only want to see reviewers assigned to a particular Keyword.
You can also see counts of how many abstracts per Keyword are assigned to each Reviewer.
If you do not have a Reviewer list, you must first Create a Reviewer Role and then Add Reviewers. See Step 1
Reviewer names on the Reviewer List screen are hyperlinks to their corresponding Reviewer Details screen.
Change keywords for Reviewers on their Reviewer Details screen.
On the Reviewer Details Screen, Abstracts are assigned to Reviewers based on Keywords and/or Categories. Categories come from the drop down list in Abstract custom questions. (Note: unless you have turned OFF the auto-assignment by keyword option in the Abstract Admin Form)
Click on the Reviewer List hyperlink as shown above to return to the Reviewer List screen.
Click the Abstract List hyperlink to display the Abstract List screen.
Click on an Abstract title to display the Abstract Details screen.
Assign Reviewers or add additional Reviewers on the Abstract Details screen.

Select the position beside the Reviewer name. The position can be Reviewer, Lead Reviewer, or Both.
If the Reviewer name does not appear, click on the link to navigate to other Reviewers available to be assigned to the Abstract.
To unassign a reviewer select Unassign as the position.
Click the Save Changes button.

Below is a mock up example of the Abstract Details screen used to Assign Reviewers.

Step 6—Reviewer Login

Now that you have set up your Reviewers and assigned Abstracts to them, you now need to provide them a way to acces their Reviews. You can do this by giving them a direct link to the tool and ensuring that you have made them aware of their login credentials.

Provide them with the following link: http://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=XXX&tid=61 (In the link, replace cid=XXX with your cid number (e.g. cid=2811). If you do not know your cid number, call support at (250) 472-7644 or look at the URL of your Conference Manager website. You can now publish this link on your Home Page. You can also create a 'Landing Page' or toolbar link for your Reviewers to provide access to the Reviewer tool link for your reviewers right in your CID.

Create a new web page in your Content Menu (Tools -> Community -> Manage Content). Publish the new page to your Reviewers. This allows your Reviewers to view the page when logged in, but hides the page from other users.
On the new web page, post the link for your Reviewers to access the Review tool.
You can also post Reviewer guidelines, deadlines, and any other important information you wish Reviewers to see.
Email the Conference Manager website URL to your Reviewers with their email, password and directions on how to access the Reviewers page. Conference Manager Website URL: http://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=XXX (Remember to insert your cid number in place of XXX in the link!)
Ensure your Reviewers know how to Login to access their Abstracts to review.
Reviewers Login with their assigned User ID and Password.
Once Reviewers Login, they then access the Reviewer page created for them in the Content Menu on the left hand side of the screen.
From there, they click on the Reviewer Link to access the Abstract Review screen.

The Abstract Review screen lists all the Abstracts associated with a Reviewer's User ID and Password.

Click on an Review to open it for review. If the Review field is empty you are no expected to submit a review for that abstract
Review the Abstract.
If files are attached (i.e., Handout PDF; PowerPoint presentation; manuscript) click on the Download Attached File icon.
If you use quantitative scoring, Assign a score from the drop down based on the scale laid out by the Admins. eg: On a Scale of 1-5 Where 1 = Poor and 5 = Excellent.
Add Comments.
Click the Save Review button.
Click on the Review List hyperlink to return to the Abstract Review screen without saving your changes.
Click on the Exit Review hyperlink to exit the Abstract Review tool.

Remember to click the SAVE REVIEW button before exiting!

Lead Reviewers will be able to access the View Reviews hyperlink associated with each listed Abstract.
Lead Reviewers are able to view all other reviews and enter an Acceptance decision (e.g.,Poster, Workshop, etc.). See the Track Reviewers section below for more information on Lead Reviewers.
Lead Reviewers can also get a report of all reviews for abstracts thay are assigned to.
The Review Detail button witll display the save veiw as doing a review except that the lead reviewer will not be able to change information.
Click the Save button to save the Acceptance decision.

Below is a mock up example of the Reviewer screen.

Step 7—Track Reviewers

Now that the Reviewers are in the system working with their assigned papers, you will need to track their progress.

Log in as an admin and click Tools -> Abstracts -> Abstract Admin
Click on the Reviewer List hyperlink to display the list of Reviewer names.
The following information is displayed:
-Reviewer Name
-Number of Abstracts assigned to that Reviewer
-Number of Unscored Abstracts remaining
On this page administrators can do the following;
1. Designate a reviewer as a Lead Reviewer.
2. Assign All abstracts to a reviewer. This not only assigns all current abstracts to the reviewer, but will also remain checked and new abstracts will also be assigned as well. To stop this second process, uncheck the assign all box and save again (thus only all current abstracts will be assigned, not new ones).
3. Remove All abstracts from a reviewer.
4. These change will not take effect until Save is clicked.
Lead Reviewers are able to view all other reviews and enter an Acceptance decision (e.g., Poster, Workshop, etc.). See Reviewer Login for more information on Lead Reviewers.
Click on a Reviewer's Name to access additional Reviewer details.
The information available includes the following;
1. Keywords assigned to the Reviewer.
2. Assigned Categories.
3. Assigned Abstracts.